Finn Bø (4 July 1893 – 24 April 1962) was a Norwegian

songwriter A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...

revue A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance, and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own duri ...

writer, playwright, journalist, instructor and

theatre critic Theatre criticism is a genre of arts criticism, and the act of writing or speaking about the performing arts such as a play or opera. Theatre criticism is distinct from drama criticism, as the latter is a division of literary criticism whereas the ...

Career

Bø is particularly remembered for his song

Norge i rødt, hvitt og blått Norge i rødt, hvitt og blått (''Norway in red, white and blue'') is one of Norway's most famous national songs. It is widely used on 17 May, Norway's Constitution Day (Norway), Constitution Day. The song originates from the time of the German occ ...

, which became extremely popular in 1945. Among his other popular songs are "Nå går'n på gummisåler" and "Bare rundt omkring", both from 1928. He published the

anecdote An anecdote is "a story with a point", such as to communicate an abstract idea about a person, place, or thing through the concrete details of a short narrative or to characterize by delineating a specific quirk or trait. Occasionally humorous ...

collection ''Forbuden frukt'' in 1945, and the song collection ''Jeg tar mig den frihet'' in 1946. Several of his plays were also adapted into films.

Personal life

His parents were Johan Christian Andreas Bø (1850–1924) and Valborg Hansen (1863–1910). He married Alfhild Knagenhjelm Poppe in 1930. He received a degree in

chemical engineering Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials int ...

from the

Norwegian Institute of Technology The Norwegian Institute of Technology (Norwegian: ''Norges tekniske høgskole'', NTH) was a science institute in Trondheim, Norway. It was established in 1910, and existed as an independent technical university for 58 years, after which it was m ...

in 1916, but from 1920 onward he mainly worked as a writer and journalist.

Selected works

Plays / revue comedies

* ''Den enes død'' (sm.m. S. Hoel), 1921 * ''Du har lovet mig en kone!'', 1934 (filmmanus 1935) * ''Hele byen snakker'', 1936 og 1957 * ''I moralens navn'', 1937 * ''Det store spørsmål'', 1940 (filmmanus ''En herre med bart'', 1942) * ''Halmstrået'', 1940 * ''Konge for en natt'', 1940 (filmmanus ''Hansen og Hansen'', 1941) * ''Trollfossen'' (filmmanus sm.m. A. Scott-Hansen og S. Hoel), 1948 * ''To liv'', 1946 * ''Hele byen flagger'', 1950 * ''Se deg om i glede'', 1959 * ''Fordi jeg elsker deg'', 1961

Song and anecdote collections

* ''Forbuden frukt'', 1945 * ''Jeg tar meg den frihet'', 1946 * ''Ondt ord igjen'', 1951 * ''I Tigerstadens jungel'', 1961

Discography (selection)

* Gamle revyviser (div. artister), 1978 * Lalla Carlsen, 1989 * Einar Rose: Landskampen, 1994

References

1893 births 1962 deaths Musicians from Oslo Norwegian songwriters Norwegian theatre critics 20th-century Norwegian dramatists and playwrights Norwegian male dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Norwegian journalists {{Norway-writer-stub